STOCKTON - The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors took steps Tuesday that would speed up the rewriting of the set of rules governing wineries in the county's rural areas.

There was no official plan on the Tuesday agenda, but board members told staff to come back with a recommendation to kick-start the process.

"It's time to get this done," board Chairman Ken Vogel said.

Since the county's current rules were set in place more than a decade ago, the county's wine industry - particularly in the Lodi area - has experienced tremendous growth. Sometimes the growth has put wineries in conflict with neighbors and other farming interests.

A sticking point has been something called "marketing events." Wineries can get approval from the county to offer a certain number of these events a year. These can include weddings, concerts and just about anything where a winery's wines are served. There have been clashes over the definition, number and clustering of these events.

Event boosters say they can be essential to building the name of a budding winery and bringing tourists to the county. Critics say some wineries are nothing but glorified event centers - bringing crowds of people to areas of the county designated for rural living and working farms.

A year ago, county officials floated the idea of putting in a moratorium that would halt the addition of new events. It had supporters, but it drew a large outcry, too. Last week, the county Planning Commission discussed adding a new moratorium, but nothing went to a vote.

The moratorium was to hold until the county rewrote its wine rules. The plan is to do that once the county finishes updating its General Plan, something that is expected to happen in 2014.

A rewrite of the rules would happen through the Community Development Department, which has new funds that officials said give the department the leeway to update the county's wine rules on a separate track. "There were funds in the budget this fiscal year to do as much," Supervisor Steve Bestolarides said.

Community Development Director Kerry Sullivan said she didn't know when the recommendation would come to the board or how long after that it would take to draft new rules.

When the county approved the last updated wine rules, the process took 18 months and underwent several public meetings and multiple revisions before final approval.

Supervisor Bob Elliott said he wouldn't object to the move. "We should do it with the same amount of attention to detail," he said. "We should not feel rushed."

There's been a lack of clarity on wine issues for a long time, Supervisor Larry Ruhstaller said. "We need to do this, and we need to do it as quickly as possible," he said. "And we need to get it right."